Woohoo ! BMW goes RV'ing....

Lessmore wrote:

Road Ruler wrote:

wilber1 wrote:
Ford raced Anglia's very successfully in the UK during the sixties.

Our first camping trips were with a 1968 Mini Cooper. Big old canvas tent, poles and tarp in the roof rack and all our other stuff crammed into the back seat and trunk. Had a great time

We camped in my first car too. A 67 Mini 850. Funny.... the guy who owned the car before me installed the Cooper S id on it.

I had a ride in a Mini Cooper from the '60's....back in the late '60's. Low to the ground.....boy did it handle. Guy driving it was a road race, ice racer. We have a lot of that around here.

First and only car I've ever grabbed the dash handle in panic that we were going to roll. We didn't...stayed flat with little body roll through the corner.

It's interesting how our concept of fun camping changes over the years.


We had two Coopers, a 65 bought used then a 68 bought new. In 72 we made one of our best trips ever when we took the 68 down 101 from Vancouver to LA and back. Not camping on that one though. These cars were much rarer in the US than in Canada so most Americans didn't know what it was or how quick they were when the road got twisty. Twice I was asked which end the engine was in when I stopped for gas. Speaking of gas, we spent about 60 bucks on premium for the whole trip but then it was less than 40 cents a gallon at the time.

Only car I have ever owned that was geared to go as fast as it could stock. Peak power, the red line and top speed all came up within 200 RPM of each other which made it pretty loud for freeway cruising (close to 4000 rpm at 60 mph) particularly if you had an aftermarket (read loud) muffler. Stock, that little engine had a tube header and 2" exhaust. Quite camy, not much below 3000 rpm but when it came on the cam the tach needle jumped up in a hurry. Starting out on some of the hills in San Francisco the choice was between burning clutch or burning rubber to get it moving.

Loved those little cars and wish we still had one but getting in and out of it would be somewhat more problematic these days. Not near as flexible as we were back then. Wife would really like a big Austin Healey but has the same doubts about one of those.

That's my nostalgia rant for today.